Penn Hills School District adds another university to its dual enrollment program options
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Penn Hills School District officials have made some changes to the district’s dual enrollment for next school year.
The program allows high schoolers, primarily juniors and seniors, to earn college credits while in high school.
The district recently added Seton Hill University to its options. Seton Hill is a private Catholic university in Greensburg.
Community College of Allegheny County is no longer part of Penn Hills’ program after issues with its boarding process impacted enrollment, said Renel Williams, district director of teaching, learning and assessment.
Only 21 students participated in the program this school year.
Classes are paid for through Title IV funds. The highest course cost is about $300, which is a fraction of the tuition if enrolled at a university.
Other colleges that have partnered with Penn Hills include LaRoche University and the University of Pittsburgh.
“It provides students the opportunity to enter college with a possible semester of credits completed if process is started early enough,” Williams said about the program.
Seton Hill offers three-credit Advanced Placement courses in U.S. history, statistics, honors trigonometry/pre-calculus, language, and composition and literature.
Pitt offers three-credit Advanced Placement courses in psychology, studio broadcasting and a four-credit course in calculus.
LaRoche offers four-credit courses in Advanced Placement biology and chemistry.
“I think the diversity is really important,” Superintendent Nancy Hines said. “Not everybody wants to go to Pitt. Not everybody wants to go to Seton Hill. Expanding the options to meet the needs and interests of kids is important. We don’t want them to have a single option for dual enrollment.”
More information about the program and how families can sign up will be released in the fall.
Hines said it’s unclear how many students would participate.
“We don’t know the lingering impact of the pandemic,” Hines said. “That’s really turned education on its heels. It’s going to be hard to project that. We want to make sure of the priorities and (families) are informed.”
More information about Penn Hills School District activities is available at phsd.k12.pa.us.